Total Corbion
Derek Atkinson is responsible for Total Corbion PLA’s business in the Americas and has been located in the USA since July 2015. Following from the announcement that Corbion would build a world scale PLA plant in Thailand Derek has been busy setting up the sales, marketing and technical service organization in the Americas that will facilitate market entry and started selling pre-marketing quantities. Previously he was Business Development Director PLA Asia for Corbion located in Singapore. In addition to his main responsibilities for commercializing Corbion’s PLA technology in Asia he was also strongly involved in the sourcing and conversion of second generation biomass as feedstocks for sustainable PLA production that does not interfere with the food chain.
He has a degree in Chemistry and Polymer Science Technology from Loughborough University in the UK. Until he left Europe he was an external examiner for the School of Chemistry at the University of Cardiff.